


This is Home.

by adiosreid



Category: Captain America (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Deaf Character, Gen, Head Injury, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-17
Updated: 2017-05-05
Packaged: 2018-05-27 07:50:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 17
Words: 21,132
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6275845
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/adiosreid/pseuds/adiosreid
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After a home invasion gone awry and time being held captive, Steve is sent to live with Phil Coulson, a school teacher who fosters children who have been through traumas.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Steve didn’t want to be there. He REALLY didn’t want to be there. He shifted awkwardly as his social worker stuffed his two duffel bags into the trunk of the car. It was a pretty nice car, but from what Steve knew, social workers didn’t make much money. Maybe the guy’s wife was a doctor or something.

The man, who Steve only knew by Abe since he couldn’t remember his last name, shut the trunk then said, “Well, we better get going. I told him you’d be by around 3 and it takes about an hour to get there. What time is it?” he asked as he glanced down at his watch, “1:37, we’ve got plenty of time.” Steve slowly opened the passenger side door and got inside before buckling his seatbelt. Abe pointed to the radio and said, “You can choose the music if you’d like. I don’t really keep up on the current trends.” Steve simply shrugged and looked out the window. He honestly didn’t care what music was playing.

Abe pulled out of the parking lot and started to hum along to the radio, which was playing songs from what Steve thought was the 1980’s, but he couldn’t be sure. Steve was beyond grateful that Abe didn’t try to make small talk with him, as he was too tired to even try to answer him.

The hour flew by to Steve’s surprise, and before he knew it, he was standing awkwardly by the trunk of the car, waiting for Abe to get his two bags. He put his hand out to take the bags, but Abe waved him off saying, “Don’t worry about it, kid. I got it.” Steve nodded slowly and looked at the ground.

“You nervous?” Abe asked. Steve didn’t respond. “Mr. Coulson is amazing, I promise. Don’t worry. He’s got two other boys living with him and I bet you’ll get along with them just fine. Everything will be fine, okay? And if it’s not, you can always call me. You don’t even have to say anything if you don’t want to. Just call my cell phone, you know the number, right?” Steve nodded. “So just call my cell phone and when I pick up, you can push one of the buttons twice, okay? That way I can hear it on my side and I’ll know it’s you and that you need me. Sound cool?” Steve nodded again and scratched at his arm.

“Alright, let’s go on in, do you want to go in front of me or behind me?” he asked gently. Steve took a step back. “Okay, let’s go.” Abe walked him up the long driveway and to the front door. Steve’s eyes widened when he saw how big the house was. He knocked softly. Steve’s chest started to hurt as his heart raced and his breathing became a little raspy. He tried to keep it hidden from Abe. It was a hot muggy day, and that wasn’t helping either.

The door opened and a man smiled and greeted, “Abe! Hi!”

“Phil! Good to see you again!”

“Come on in! You can set his bags over there, by the table.”

Abe walked in and Steve trailed behind him. Steve subconsciously rubbed at the middle of his chest as he walked through the doorway to try to dull the pain.

“Hello, you must be Steve. I’m Phil. Are you feeling okay? You look a little pale. Would you like to sit down?”

Steve nodded quickly.

“You can sit wherever you’d like.”

Steve stumbled over to the closest armchair and threw himself down into it. The force of hitting the chair released the wheezing that he was trying to hide.

“Here, his inhaler should be in this bag,” Abe said quickly, opening one of the duffel bags. He dug around until he found it, then rushed over to give it to Steve.

After a few moments, Steve’s breathing settled down and Abe put the inhaler back in the bag.

“All good?” Phil asked as he sat down in the armchair across from Steve.

Steve nodded.

Abe’s phone started to ring, and he excused himself outside to answer it.

“Okay. Well, first I want to let you know that you can feel free to do whatever you’d like. Make yourself at home. I don’t really have many rules besides just being respectful to both yourself and others and not breaking the law. Other than that, you can do whatever you’d like. And if some days that means not leaving your bedroom at all then that’s okay. Just know that the only thing I will make you do is eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Does that sound okay?” Phil asked.

Steve nodded.

“Clint and Bucky live here too. I think Bucky’s taking a nap and I don’t really know where Clint is. I think he’s playing some video games, or reading, or something, but I’m not 100% sure.”

Steve just nodded slowly and looked at the ground.

“You can go basically everywhere in the house. I mean, I’d ask permission to go into my bedroom, or Bucky’s, or Clint’s, but you really can go wherever. Look around, make yourself at home. Clint sure has. I don’t think Bucky has, though. I think he’s only really gone into his bedroom, the kitchen, and the family room. He doesn’t like big open spaces, but I think he might go into the basement sometimes. I honestly don’t know. What else… oh! I work at the school that you’ll go to.”

Steve tensed slightly. He knew that he would probably be in some sort of special education program, but the thought of being around so many other people his age again scared him.

“Bucky and Clint go there too, and they’ll be in the same class as you.” Phil started, noticing Steve’s anxiety, “Everything will be fine. Like I said, you’ll be in the same class as Bucky and Clint, and I won’t even make you go yet this week. It’s Friday today, so that’ll give you a little over a week to get settled in. If you want to wait a week, that’s perfectly fine with me. I just ask that maybe next week you can go two days? Maybe Tuesday and Thursday? Then we can build up from there. Clint usually goes everyday unless he’s having a bad day. Bucky goes for four days, and he stays home on Wednesdays, so maybe you could do that too if you’d like. It’s all up to you, I’m not going to force you. The only thing is that, since I work at the school, I won’t be here if you decide to stay home, but of course you can always call or text me if you need something. I’ve got one of Clint’s old phones that I can give you; I’ll find it tonight. Does that sound good?”

Steve nodded.

Abe opened the front door and came back inside, “Look’s like I’ve got to get going, my wife just called saying our babysitter cancelled for tonight and she can’t pick her up from daycare so she needs me to. Is everything okay, Steve? Is it alright if I leave? If not, that’s okay. I can call a friend to pick my daughter up.”

Steve nodded.

“Okay, just call me if you ever need anything, okay?”

Steve nodded again.

“Alright. Phil, it was nice seeing you again,” he said as Phil stood up to shake his hand. Phil opened the door for him and they exchanged goodbyes before Phil closed the door.


	2. Chapter 2

“Would you like to see your room?” Phil asked.

Steve stood up and nodded.

“Alright, here,” he said, picking up the duffel bag full of clothing, “You can take this bag and I’ll take the heavier one.” He handed the bag to Steve before picking up the bag full of medical supplies. “It’s just down the hallway here,” he started as they walked down the hallway, “This is Clint’s room, this one is Bucky’s, and then this one is yours. The bathroom’s right there, across the hall.” They walked inside the bedroom and Phil set the bag down on the bed. Steve stood in the corner, looking around. The room was painted a light blue, which Steve liked. He hated cream or white colored walls, as they made him anxious. There was the bed in the center, then there was a dresser with a TV on top, desk, and a side table next to the bed. There was a window on the left wall, and the curtains were very thick, so the outdoor light couldn’t seep through unless someone opened them. “Feel free to move things around if you’d like. I know both Clint and Bucky moved their beds against the wall. And if you need the TV, light, or ceiling fan on while you sleep you can do that too, I don’t mind. As long as the TV isn’t super loud, Clint does that sometimes. Oh, do you want me to turn the closed captions on?”

Steve nodded.

“Here,” Phil said as he picked up the remote, turned the TV on, and went to turn the closed captions on. “The other TV’s in the house already have it on them. Clint’s deaf, so we usually keep them on. Do you usually use the closed captions?” Phil asked, trying to make conversation.

Steve nodded.

“Okay, good, I figured you might have. Then it won’t be too much of a change, huh?”

Phil set the remote down but kept the TV on.              

“Do you want to unpack right now?”

Steve nodded.

“Do you want me to help?”

Steve hesitated for a few seconds, furrowed his brow, then shrugged.

“How about this, how about I unpack this bag, and you can do your clothes? That way you can have them just the way you’d like.

Steve nodded slowly before setting his bag on the floor and unpacking his clothing into the dresser.

“Okay, so I’m putting your inhaler and hearing aid case on top of the night stand, okay? That way you can get to them easily when you need them.”

Steve nodded.

After only about fifteen minutes, everything was unpacked. “Feel free to do whatever you’d like. I need to go do some work in my office. It’s just down the hall, so if you need me, you can find me there. You can look around the house if you’d like. I’m sorry I can’t tell you where Clint is right now, so you might see him. But don’t worry, he knows you’re here. You wont bother him. I’m pretty sure Bucky is still sleeping; I’ll usually have to wake him up before dinner, which is at 6:30. I’ll see you then unless you need me, okay? Other than that I’ll let you have some time alone.”

Steve nodded and Phil left the room. He sat on the bed for a little while, watching the TV. After half an hour, he decided to look around a bit. He turned the TV off and slowly walked out into the hallway. When he came to the armchair where he had sat earlier, he turned left and went into the doorway, which he found led to the kitchen. It, like the house in general, was large. All of the cabinets and appliances were lined up on the sides and there was an island in the center. The wall on the other side of the room was made up of glass windows, and there was a dining table in front. Steve walked up to the windows and looked outside. The house had a nice shady patio with some chairs and the backyard was fenced in. He looked over to the clock above the stove. 5:12. He had about an hour to look around still. The kitchen was open into the family room, and there were two armchairs on the sides and a couch in the center surrounding a TV.

He decided not to keep looking around the house, as he was a little afraid to accidentally find Clint. He wasn’t ready to meet anyone new yet; he needed a little bit longer. He went back into his bedroom, shut the door, laid down on his bed, and took a nap.

He awoke to Phil lightly knocking on his door, “Steve? It’s time for dinner.”

Steve slowly got up and opened the door. “Clint’s already in the kitchen. I’m going to wake up Bucky and then I’ll be there. Dinner’s on the table, but we do pray before we eat, okay? You don’t have to participate if you don’t want to, but I just ask that you don’t eat until we say a prayer.”

Steve nodded and slowly walked into the kitchen.

When he walked in, there was a blond boy already sitting at the table, who Steve presumed was Clint. He was sitting at the table with his back to the kitchen, so he couldn’t see Steve as he walked in. Steve stood in the doorway, afraid to walk any closer. He knew he shouldn’t be afraid, but he remembered hearing Phil saying that Clint was deaf and he probably got scared when people just showed up seemingly out of nowhere like Steve did. Steve could hear okay with his hearing aides, but sometimes if someone was walking softly behind him, they could easily catch him off guard.

“Oops, pardon me, Steve,” Phil said as he walked into the doorway and Steve jumped.

Clint turned around after Phil spoke and looked over at Steve, “Hey’m Clint.”

Steve nodded once in response.

“Bucky should be out in a few minutes. We can start without him,” Phil said as he sat down. Steve followed and sat down across from Clint, where the other plate was placed. Steve noticed that there were only three plates, but he didn’t say anything about it. He was afraid that Phil had forgotten that he’d need to put four plates out instead of just three, but he didn’t want Phil to be upset with him for speaking out of turn.

Clint and Phil lowered their heads and folded their hands, so Steve followed suit. Steve recognized the prayer they were saying, as it was one that he grew up saying with his mother. Steve grew up in the Catholic church and figured he was still Catholic. He was happy to find out that Phil and maybe Clint were too.

After they prayed, they started to eat. Phil explained that he had heated up some leftovers from the night before. It was chicken with pasta, which Steve liked, but he picked at it nervously.

Suddenly, another boy showed up in the doorway, which startled Steve. The boy was standing with only half of his body showing, but Steve could see that he had messy medium length dark hair which, on top of his large build, made him slightly intimidating. That made Steve very anxious. The boy in the doorway, however, looked equally as anxious. Steve set his fork down and put his hands in his lap.

“Ah, there you are Bucky. Come on in. This is Steve, remember?” Phil asked.

Bucky looked confused, then nodded slowly. He stayed in the doorway.

“You can come in when you’re ready; I don’t mind,” Phil said, going back to his dinner. “So Clint, how was school today?”

“Okay,” Clint answered, going back to his own dinner as well. Steve wondered if it was normal for Bucky to not come in, since they didn’t seem to be phased by it. He picked up his own fork and took a bite of the pasta before picking at his food again. After a few minutes, Bucky slowly padded into the kitchen, and Steve immediately looked down at his plate to stop from staring. Bucky’s left arm stopped just at his shoulder. He was wearing a small backpack, and it was buckled across his chest to keep the strap on his left shoulder. He sat down at the chair next to Steve and Clint and across from Phil, where there wasn’t a plate.


	3. Chapter 3

They ate in silence for a while, and Bucky stared down at the table. After about ten minutes, there was a loud beeping sound. Steve jumped and dropped his fork, which then startled Bucky.

“Oh, don’t worry Steve, that’s Bucky’s feeding tube. Nothing bad,” Phil explained as he stood up. Bucky unclipped his backpack and shimmied it off of his back. He handed it to Phil before lifting up his shirt and undoing the tubing from the button on his abdomen. Phil opened the backpack and pulled out a small piece of tubing and gave it to Bucky before going into the refrigerator and grabbing a couple prefilled syringes. He walked back to Bucky, took the little piece of tubing, and squeezed each syringe one by one into the tubing. When he was done, he took a syringe full of saline and used it to flush the tubing before letting Bucky take it off and put his shirt back down.

“Okay, so I was thinking about watching a movie tonight. Any of you in?” Phil asked, putting his plate into the sink. Clint got up and did the same, so Steve followed.

“I’m in. What’re we watching?” Clint asked.

“I don’t know yet. I wanted to see who was in first. Bucky, you wanna watch a movie? Or are you still tired? You seemed like you had a long day.”

Bucky tilted his head as he processed the question, “Yeah, I’ll watch,” he said quietly.

“Steve? What about you?”

“Sure,” he breathed, keeping his head down.

Phil tried not to look surprised that Steve spoke. “Okay, look’s like everyone’s in. You guys want to meet back around 8ish? I’ll pop some popcorn and pick the movie out before then.”

The three boys nodded. Clint went back into the basement, and Steve noticed that he walked with a significant limp.

Bucky and Steve were left standing in the kitchen.  “What would you two like to do?” Phil asked. Neither of them responded. “How about we play a card game? Do you know how to play Uno?”

They both shook their heads.

“Okay, hmm, what about Crazy Eight?”

They both shook their heads again.

“Wow, this is tough. How about Go Fish? I feel like most people know that.”

Steve hesitated and thought for a moment before nodding, but Bucky looked confused, almost like he didn’t know the answer.

“Do you know how to play, Bucky?”

Bucky shrugged.

“Well, we can try to start the game and maybe you’ll remember it? Maybe you just need to see it.”

Bucky nodded slowly.

“Okay, I’ll go grab a deck of cards. I think I have one in the basement. I’ll be right back,” he promised before leaving the kitchen.

            Steve slowly sat down at the chair he’d sat in during dinner and Bucky sat in his. Steve was very tense, because he was still greatly intimidated by Bucky. So what if the guy was missing his left arm? He could still take an underweight asthmatic out in one throw. Bucky didn’t seem like he was the violent type, but there was no way in hell that Steve would even try to test that theory.

            “Hello,” Bucky whispered, staring at the table. His voice sounded very forced and timid.

            “Hi,” Steve responded, equally as quietly.

            “I’m Bucky,” he whispered again.

            “Steve.”

They sat in silence until Phil came back in. “Bad news, guys. I can’t find a deck. I found this puzzle though. Its quite large, like 2000 pieces, but I figure we can put part of it together in the dining room and then leave it out so you guys can work on it whenever you want. Sound good?”

Bucky and Steve nodded and followed Phil into the dining room. “I’m going to set a timer on my phone for 7:50 so we remember when to stop,” Phil said as he set the timer. He then opened the puzzle box and dumped the pieces out onto the table. “We should probably sort out the edge pieces. Here, we’ll sort them into two piles. We can put the edge pieces here and the other ones over here.”

The three of the started sorting the pieces until every piece had been looked at. Once they had finished sorting them, they started to put the outer edge together. When the timer went off at 7:50, they had put the edge together and had a few of the inner pieces in place already. “Alright,” Phil started as he stood up, “Can you guys go get Clint? I’ll grab a movie and make some popcorn.”

Steve and Bucky looked at each other for a moment before heading downstairs. When they arrived in the basement, they saw Clint sprawled out on the couch reading a book. Steve squinted to see the cover, but was unsuccessful.

“Is it 8 already?” He asked as he sat up.

“Yeah,” Steve answered.

Clint stood up and stretched and Steve noticed the purple ear molds of his hearing aides. They looked like the same kind that Steve had, only he had red ones. Bucky stood awkwardly to the side before going back up the stairs with Steve and Clint following behind. Clint trailed behind the other two significantly and gripped the railing tightly. At the top of the stairs, Steve looked back when he felt that Clint wasn’t right behind him, then kept following Bucky to the kitchen.

He could faintly hear the sound of corn popping in the microwave. Phil walked in holding a DVD case. He set it down on the counter before saying, “Hey, Bucky, can you grab your backpack for me?” He then opened up a cabinet to reveal a bunch of cans and grabbed two. “Clint, can you put the movie in?”

“Yeah,” Clint answered as he grabbed the movie.

Bucky slowly walked across the kitchen and picked up his backpack. “Okay, can you go get a new bag and tubing?” Phil asked. Bucky looked at him for a moment with his head tilted, then walked out of the kitchen and returned a minute later, carrying two plastic packages. He handed them to Phil. Phil opened the cans and then took the bag and tubing out of the plastic packaging. He poured the formula from the can into the bag and set up the tubing. He took the machine out of Bucky’s backpack and used it to prime the tubing before setting it all up, threading the tubing out of the backpack and closing it, and handing the bag to Bucky. He attached the tubing to himself then slung the bag over his shoulders and fumbled with the center strap to get it to stay.

Phil had gone to grab the popcorn out of the microwave and put another bag in. He grabbed four bowls out of a cupboard and set them on the counter. “Steve, are butter and salt okay?”

Steve nodded.

“Cool. That’s what I like. Clint only likes salt and Bucky likes his with a little sugar, kind of like kettle corn, I guess. It’s about time someone ‘normal’ came along,” he laughed.

Steve stood off to the side with Bucky, watching Phil. Phil poured one of the bowls almost full of popcorn, then put about half of a bowl into another, which used up one bag. While the other bag still popped, Phil opened another cupboard and took out the sugar and salt. He sprinkled salt on the bigger bowl and sugar on the smaller one. When the other bag was done, he divided it in half between the remaining two bowls before melting some butter in the microwave, pouring it on top, then shaking some salt on top.

Clint walked in and announced, “Movie’s in.”

“Here, go ahead and grab your popcorn, Clint,” Phil said, handing him the big bowl. “And Bucky,” he handed Bucky the little bowl, “And finally the only other normal popcorn-eater, Steve,” he handed Steve one of the last bowls. They walked out into the family room. Steve stood and watched as the three others took their seats, so that he didn’t accidentally take one one of their spots. Clint went for the left armchair, Phil for the right one, and Bucky curled up on the right side of the couch. “Are you coming?” Phil asked Steve. He nodded and sat on the left side of the couch.

They watched the movie, which Steve didn’t recognize but also didn’t want to ask what the title was. He held his bowl of popcorn in his lap and occasionally took a piece. Even though he hadn’t eaten much at dinner, he wasn’t hungry. In fact, he felt a little nauseous, but he didn’t want Phil to get upset with him so he ate some. Clint finished his bowl in the first fifteen minutes of the movie. Steve couldn’t understand how someone so scrawny like Clint could eat so much. Steve sure couldn’t. Bucky hadn’t really touched his popcorn either, picking at it like Steve was, but Steve also figured that could be because Bucky has his feeding tube and maybe he was just full.

After what seemed like an eternity to Steve, the movie ended. Phil stood up and stretched, “I think I’m going to head to bed; I’m exhausted. You guys can do whatever you’d like. Bucky, just let me know when you go to bed. Remember, you can wake me up if you need to.”

“Now,” Bucky whispered as he unfolded himself from the couch.

“Okay. Steve? Clint? Are you guys going to stay up?”

Steve shook his head.

“I’ve got a headache, so I think I’ll just go to bed early too,” Clint answered as he stood up, rubbing his head.

“Take some Tylenol. I think we’ve got some nighttime stuff too. Help you get to sleep,” Phil suggested.

Clint nodded and walked into the kitchen, setting his bowl in the sink.

“Alright, I can take your bowls,” Phil said, taking the bowls from the two, “Steve are you not very hungry today? I noticed you didn’t each much dinner either.”

Steve’s eyes widened and he froze, then quickly started repeating, “I’m sorry. I’ll eat next time. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to.”

“Hey, hey, hey, it’s okay. I’m not angry, just curious. You didn’t do anything wrong.”

Steve looked at the ground. Bucky was still standing by the corner, but he seemed to have spaced out.

“Can I go to bed?” Steve whispered quietly.

“Of course,” Phil said smiling, “You don’t have to ask, okay? If you’re ever tired, you can go to bed.”

Steve nodded slowly, his eyes still on the ground, before turning and walking to his bedroom.

He heard Phil ask, “Ready?” to Bucky, but kept walking until he got to his bedroom. He slowly shut the door before turning the TV on and changing into his pajamas. He took out his hearing aides and got into bed, letting the dim light of the TV help him to sleep.


	4. Chapter 4

When Steve woke up, he put his hearing aides in, turned off the TV, and slowly opened his door. He thought he could faintly hear the drone of a TV, so he figured that at least someone was up. He slowly walked into the family room to find Phil sitting in his armchair, reading the newspaper and drinking a cup of coffee.

“Good morning. Did you sleep well?”

Steve nodded.

“Are you ready for breakfast? Or do you want to wait for Bucky and Clint? I usually like to make pancakes on Saturdays. I just don’t know when they will wake up, so if you’re hungry now, go ahead and grab something. “

“I’ll wait,” Steve answered quietly.

“Okay. You can watch some TV with me if you’d like. Or you can do something else, I don’t mind,” Phil offered.

Steve stood silently for a moment, thinking. “The puzzle? Can I do that?”

“Of course,” Phil smiled as he went back to reading the newspaper, “I’ll go see if Bucky is awake in a few minutes, maybe he could help you?”

Steve nodded. He went into the dining room and started to put some of the pieces into the puzzle. He had found a spot for four of the pieces and was working on the fifth when someone walked in, making him jump.

“Sorry,” Bucky mumbled as he plopped into the chair across the table, smoothing down his nasty case of bedhead.

“S’okay,” Steve answered.

Bucky rested his head in his hand and stared out the window as Steve searched for the correct piece.

After a while, Phil walked in and said, “Pancakes are ready. I’m going to go wake up Clint. You two can go ahead and start to eat if you’d like.”

They both stood up and walked into the kitchen. There was a plate full of pancakes on the counter and a stack of plates and forks next to it. Bucky grabbed a plate and fork and Steve followed, still nervous about messing up and making someone angry. Bucky put one pancake on his plate, so Steve did the same. Phil walked back in and Clint followed groggily behind, not wearing his hearing aides. Clint grabbed his plate and started stacking pancakes onto it. Once he reached four, Phil waved his hand in front of him before making some sort of hand gesture at him. Clint set down his plate and made gestures back at Phil before picking it up again and sauntering over to the table.

Steve was very confused. He remembered learning something about hand gestures when he was little, and he struggled to make out the memory. He sat staring at his plate for a few moments. _Sign language._ That was it. His mom had wanted him to learn, right? When he was younger and didn’t like to wear his hearing aides outside of school? He tried to remember some of the signs that he learned, but drew a blank.

“Steve?” Phil asked, knocking him out of his thoughts, “You okay?”

Steve nodded quickly then picked up his fork. He ate a few bites of the pancake before he started to feel nauseous again, so he set his fork back down. Bucky had eaten about the same amount as him, so he figured it was fine. Clint, however, was almost done with his four and eyeing the plate on the counter. He ended up deciding that four was enough, put his plate in the sink, then disappeared back into the hallway.

“It takes a while for him to wake up,” Phil explained, laughing. He clapped his hands, “Alright, so, what do you guys want to do today?”

Neither of them gave any response.

“Okay. Well, I’ve got a lot of laundry to do, so maybe just a lazy day at home?”

They both nodded.

“Okay cool. Church is at 4:30. Steve, you don’t have to come if you don’t want to.”

“I’ll go,” Steve answered.

 “Bucky, are you feeling up to going this week? Don’t feel like you have to, remember? God won’t mind if you don’t feel good,” Phil asked gently.

“Yeah, I think I can go,” Bucky answered, rubbing his left shoulder.

“Okay. Remember, both of you, that you can always say no anytime before we go. I’m going to go start on the laundry now, you two can do whatever you’d like. I’ll probably go out and grab something for lunch and bring it back here. Maybe I’ll take Clint, I think he said he needed something from the store so we might stop there too. We’ll see,”.

Steve and Bucky stood awkwardly for a few moments before Steve decided to go back to the puzzle. He felt Bucky follow him and once they reached the dining room, they assumed the same positions as before. Steve tried to put the pieces into the puzzle and Bucky stared out the window.

After about a half an hour, Bucky started to watch Steve as he put the puzzle together. Steve was a little unnerved by it but didn’t want to make Bucky angry by telling him to stop. 

“There,” Bucky said suddenly.

“Huh?” Steve asked, startled.

“There.” Bucky repeated, pointing to an open space on the puzzle.

“Oh. Thanks,” Steve answered, fitting the piece into the space.

Steve picked up another piece, and Bucky did the same, and after two and a half hours, they had put half of the remaining puzzle together.

“Hey guys, Clint and I are going to go get some lunch and stop by the drug store. You two okay being here alone?” Phil asked as he walked in.

They both nodded.

“Great. Steve, I think we’re going to get sandwiches for lunch. What kind would you like?”

Steve shrugged.

“Would you like to split one with me? I can’t eat a whole one by myself.”

Steve nodded.

“I usually get a ham and cheese with mustard, is that okay with you?”

Steve nodded again.

“Alright, we’ll be back in about an hour, maybe an hour and a half. Feel free to call me if you need me, okay?”

They both nodded.

“Okay, see you guys later.”

Bucky set his piece down on the table and said something, but his head was down for most of it so Steve only heard the last part, “TV.” He stood up and walked out of the room.

Steve sat for a bit until he decided to go see what Bucky was doing. Since he heard him say something about TV, he figured Bucky would be in the family room. He found Bucky sprawled out on the couch, his backpack sitting on the floor, the tubing snaking up the side of the couch and under his shirt. Steve curled up into one of the armchairs and tried to figure out what Bucky was watching.

The people in the show were speaking quietly, so Steve was thankful that the captions were on. For the most part, he could hear when people were speaking softly in real life, but he struggled when it was on TV. After a few minutes, Steve had deduced a few things. The TV show was about a team of people trying to solve a crime. The criminal was a serial killer. He also thought that the show was familiar, but he couldn’t quite make it out. He was a little uncomfortable by it, but he didn’t want to ask Bucky to change the channel.

As the show progressed, the team got closer and closer to finding the killer, but a woman was also taken by him. Steve watched intently as the team finally figured out the killer at the last moment, busted into the killer’s home, and saved the woman. Steve liked that ending.

The credit rolled as the channel announced that the day long Criminal Minds marathon would continue and Steve finally realized why it seemed so familiar. He remembered watching this show with his mother all the time. It tended to be on randomly in the daytime, so whenever he had had to stay home sick, which was quite often, they would watch it together.

The next episode began, and it became evident very fast that the next criminal kidnapped his victims and held them captive for months before killing them. Steve froze. Bucky suddenly sat up, grabbed the remote, and hit the button that changes to the next channel.  He then looked over at Steve and said, “Sorry. Don’t like that. Too real for me.”

“Me too,” Steve confessed.

There was a moment of silence between them, as they realized what they shared in common. They both didn’t know what to say. After a minute, Steve asked, “Is Bucky your real name?”

“No. James,” Bucky answered stiffly. There was silence before, “Is Steve your real name?”

“Kinda. Steven, but Steve’s kinda the same. Why Bucky instead of James?”

Bucky tensed before slowly saying, “Don’t like James. S’what they called me.”

Steve’s voice got quiet, “They called me Steven. Don’t like Steven either.”

There was another moment of silence before Bucky said, “Comes from middle name.”

“Huh?””

“James Buchanan Barnes. Bucky came from Buchanan.”

“Oh.”

Suddenly, Bucky smirked, “Clint’s short for Clinton. Clinton Francis Barton. He doesn’t know I know.”

Steve smiled, “That’s hilarious.”


	5. Chapter 5

Once Clint and Phil had come home and they had eaten lunch, Clint went into the basement to read, Phil left to finish the laundry, and Bucky went into his bedroom to take a nap. Steve sat around for a bit before deciding that a nap sounded nice and retreated into his bedroom. He awoke to Phil saying, “Come on boys, it’s three forty-five. If you want to come to church, you’ll need to be out here by four.

Steve instantly sat up and walked out of his room. He was afraid that Phil would be angry with him if he waited. Phil was leaning against the counter, sorting through the mail and opening an envelope, “I went to get Clint from the basement, but it turned out that he took a nap too. Jeez, what did I do to tire all three of you out? I’m not that interesting,” he joked. He reached into the envelope and unfolded the paper inside, “Mr. Phil Coulson…blah blah blah…we appreciate your time…blah blah blah…” he rambled as he threw the paper into the trash.

Bucky drifted into the kitchen, rubbing his shoulder under the strap of his backpack. Steve noticed that he was wearing a prosthetic on his left arm, but he kept the center strap of the backpack closed. Clint followed him, yawning.

“Ah, great. Everyone’s on time. Steve, I think your shoes are still by the front door. We usually keep them by the garage door, so you can drop them there when we come back if you’d like.”

Steve nodded and went to the front door to retrieve his shoes. When he slipped them on and came back, they walked into the garage and into the car. Steve watched to see where Clint and Bucky sat first. Clint took the front passenger seat and Bucky went for the right side, so Steve went to sit on the left.

When they arrived at the church, Phil explained, “Steve, we usually like to sit in the very back. They’ve got some chairs set up against the wall, and Bucky and Clint like sitting there. Is that okay with you?”

Steve nodded.

“Great.”

Steve followed them inside and sat between Clint and Bucky by the wall.

“I’m going to go say hello to some people; you guys can stay here if you’d like,” Phil said as he set his jacket down on the chair and walked away.

Neither of them spoke. They were tenser, and Bucky eyed every person that came even a step closer to them. Steve was on edge, his anxiety creeping up. Finally, the mass started and Phil came back to sit with them.

The mass went by smoothly, and Steve let himself relax a little. After it was over, Phil asked, “We’ve got some leftover lasagna in the fridge from earlier this week, you two okay with that for dinner? Either that or we’ll go out, I haven’t gone grocery shopping yet.”

Clint and Steve nodded.

 Once they got home, Phil reheated the lasagna and they ate while sitting in the family room, watching a rerun of Wheel of Fortune. Bucky had removed the prosthetic and sprawled out on the couch. Steve, after repeatedly telling Bucky it was fine, was sat on the floor, leaning his back against the couch. He barely ate his lasagna.

            “I’m going to go to bed early again,” Clint groaned as he stood up to put his bowl in the sink, “I still have that headache.”

            “Take some medicine, again, okay? If you need anything else, let me know,” Phil said.

            Bucky, Steve, and Phil watched another rerun of Wheel of Fortune before Bucky stood up and stretched.

            “You going to bed now?” Phil asked.

            “Yeah.”

            Phil stood up and stretched too, “Alright. Steve, I’ll be right back.”

            Steve sat and watched the beginning of another episode until Phil came back.

“I’ll probably stay up for a while, what about you?” Phil asked as he walked in.

Steve nodded and stood up to sit on the couch.

“Do you want to keep watching Wheel of Fortune, or should we find something else?” Phil asked.

Steve shrugged.

“Hmmm… How about we see what else is on?” Phil flipped through the channels. He landed on a reality show about a car shop and put the remote down. “I like to watch shows like these before I go to bed. I usually don’t get too into them, so if I get tired I can stop easily.”

Steve just nodded back at him.

They sat for about half an hour, until the episode was over.

Phil stood up and stretched his arm, “Alright, I think I’m going to go to bed. You can stay up if you’d like.”

Steve shook his head, stood up, and walked to his bedroom.

The next morning, when he woke up, Steve popped his hearing aides in and found Phil sitting in his chair again.

“Good morning. There’s leftover pancakes in the fridge if you want some. Clint’s still asleep, and I think Bucky is working on that puzzle in the dining room.”

Steve nodded and walked into the dining room. Bucky was sitting in his chair, but he wasn’t trying to find a spot for a piece. Instead, he was staring out the window again. He shifted when Steve sat down, but his gaze didn’t move. Steve worked on the puzzle for a bit, before Bucky finally looked away from the window.

“Morning,” Bucky mumbled.

“Morning.”

Bucky held his face in his hand and watched Steve. Soon, Clint shuffled in and plopped down in the chair next to Bucky.

“Hey,” he greeted, rubbing his neck.

“Hi,” Steve replied. Bucky didn’t say anything.

“Can I help?” Clint asked, pointing at the puzzle.

Steve nodded.

Clint picked up a piece and found its place. Steve and Clint worked together while Bucky watched until the puzzle was finally completed. They left it on the table and went to find Phil.

“Hey, Clint, you’re awake. Leftover pancakes are in the fridge if you want some,” Phil said as they walked into the family room.

“Nah, I’m good.”

Phil looked surprised, “Clint? Not wanting to eat? Is this real life?”

“Haha very funny. I’ll just wait until lunch,” Clint huffed as he plopped into his armchair. Bucky went to sit on his side of the couch, and Steve went to his.

“You guys want to watch a movie or something?”

“Yeah,” Clint answered. The other two nodded.

“Okay. I’ll go downstairs and try to find something,” Phil replied as he got up.

Bucky rested his head against the couch cushion and closed his eyes. Clint played with the hem of his sweatpants. Steve, not knowing how else to entertain himself, picked at the stitching of the seat cushion.

When Phil came back he exclaimed, “Wow, you guys are awfully quiet today,”

“Tired,” Clint answered.

Phil shrugged and replied, “It’s fine with me. I love lazy weekends. You guys up for a Harry Potter marathon?”

“Cool with me,” Clint said.

Bucky still had his eyes closed, so Phil looked at Steve, who then nodded.

They watched the first movie, with Phil making little comments every once in a while.

“Steve, you’ve really never seen this before? That’s crazy!”

“Look how young everyone looks!”

“Ugh, Draco Malfoy, I’ve never liked him.”

“Which Dumbledore do you guys like better, this one or the other one? I always thought Michael Gambon had an interesting approach but I think I might like this one better.”

Once the movie ended, Phil announced, “Crap, I forgot that I needed to go grocery shopping. We’ve got nothing for lunch. Crap crap crap. I guess I’ll just go now, that okay with you guys?”

All three nodded.

“I’ll pick something up to make for lunch then too. Anyone need anything?” he asked as he rushed to find his list.

No one answered, so he said, “Okay, I’ll be back soon then.”


	6. Chapter 6

Bucky fell asleep curled up on the couch, and neither Steve nor Clint got up from their seats either. Clint mindlessly flipped through the channels, sometimes pausing for a few minutes to watch a program a bit before switching to the next. Steve didn’t mind.

            When Phil came home, he put away the groceries and made grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch. Bucky slowly woke up and walked into the kitchen and sat at the table to watch. Steve followed him and eventually, so did Clint.

            They ate lunch while Bucky stared out the window. He rubbed at his forehead.

            “Hey Bucky, you feeling okay? Does your head hurt?” Phil asked.

            Bucky slowly turned his head to look at Phil, and he looked confused. Phil repeated the question.

            Bucky tried to answer him, but his words were all gibberish, “Just...dizz…hrnghh...mmmmm…”

            Phil gently set his sandwich on his plate and stood up, “Here, let’s have you lay on the floor,” he said, tugging gently on Bucky’s shoulders and helping him onto the ground. Clint stood up as well and silently pulled some chairs away from the table. Steve, not knowing what else to do, set his barely eaten sandwich down and stood next to Clint.

            Bucky’s eyes rolled back into his head and he started to shake. Phil gently lifted him onto his side and kept a hand on his back, “Bucky, it’s okay. We’re here. You’re okay,” Phil repeated softly.

            “What’s…” Steve started to ask Clint.

            “Seizure,” Clint answered.

            “Oh.”            

            Bucky’s breathing sounded raspy and rough. Phil just kept his hand on his back to hold him up on his side and repeated the three phrases.

            After about a minute, Bucky stopped convulsing and his breathing relaxed. He groaned and rubbed his head with his hand. 

            “Bucky? You’ve had a seizure, okay? You’re okay. Clint, Steve, and I are here. Everything’s okay. Just relax,” Phil said, keeping his hand on Bucky’s back.

            “Wansleep,” Bucky said softly.

            “Don’t worry, you can. Let’s just wait a little bit before you get up, okay? We can wait. We have time.”

            Bucky shifted to sit up, but Phil gently pushed him back down, “Not yet, one more minutes, okay? Does anything hurt?”

            Bucky shook his head before putting his hand over his eyes. After a minute had passed, Phil said, “You can try to sit up now if you’d like. No rush.”

            Bucky, with Phil’s help, slowly sat up. He held his head in his hand and hunched over, his hair falling in front of his face.

            “Sorry,” Bucky mumbled.

            “You don’t have to apologize, Bucky, remember? You can’t control this. Just relax, you can stand up in a few minutes,” Phil answered gently.

            Bucky didn’t respond.

After a few tense minutes, Bucky tried to stand up. He faltered a little bit, but Phil caught him. “Take it easy, Bucky,” he cautioned.

Once Bucky was on his feet, Phil helped him to his bedroom. Clint started to slide the chairs back under the table.

“Happens a lot,” Clint explained, “Buck’s got a TBI, traumatic brain injury. It’s one of the effects.”

“Oh,” Steve answered, “How often?”

“Ummm…” Clint started, scratching his neck, “maybe like once a week? Maybe a little less. Depends really. Sometimes they’re triggered by like stress or something but sometimes they just happen.”

“Oh.”

“Buck’s got it bad, but you kinda know that already, I guess.”

Steve nodded but didn’t say anything.

Clint sighed, “He was kidnapped when he was 11. Rescued when he was 16. The doctors weren’t quite sure when he got the brain injury, but they figure it was kinda a long time from when he got rescued. Like half a year or something, I don’t know. He’s been with us for a little less than a year.”

Steve absorbed that information then asked shyly, “How long have you been here?”

“About three and a half years. Phil adopted me like almost two years ago, so this is my official home, and I guess that makes Phil my dad? I don’t know, that’s kinda weird to me. Phil’s in the process of adopting Bucky, and he’ll probably try to adopt you later, if you’re okay with it. It’s his way of making sure we don’t get into another abusive situation or something like that I guess.”

Steve nodded slowly as his brain caught up.

“Phil’s pretty cool. I don’t mind him being my adoptive father, sure as hell beats my ‘sad excuse for a human being’ biological father. I was born hearing; you know that? And then that sack of shit beat it out of me. I mean, I wasn’t born with the best hearing on the planet, but I could get by. But no, he couldn’t handle having a kid with cerebral palsy or shit hearing, so he thought the best idea was to beat it out of them. Obviously, that didn’t work. Probably just made my limp like seven times worse,” Clint ran a hand through his hair, “Sorry. I just…get a little angry about that guy. Didn’t mean to spill all that on you. Dumbass cornpone son of a bitch died three years ago in a car accident, so I don’t have to live on the same planet as him anymore.”

“I’m sorry,” Steve said, not knowing what else to say.

Clint shrugged, but didn’t say anything else.

“I was kidnapped,” Steve said softly. He was thankful that Clint understood him, because he didn’t want to say it again.

“Damn,” Clint answered, leaning on the counter, “How long?”

“Five months. They tried to rob my house but they didn’t know my mom and I were home, and they shot her and took me.”

“How long has it been since you got out?”

“Couple weeks.”

“Shit, man,” Clint breathed, his grip tightening on the counter behind him,

 “Why does it seem like the Earth is filled with super shitty people?”

“Phil’s nice.”

“Yeah, he really is. I just…ugh…I don’t know,” Clint mumbled.

They stood in silence for a few moments before Phil came back in.

“How’s Buck?” Clint asked.

“He’s okay. Tired and a little confused, but okay. I checked everything to make sure. I think he just needs to kinda sleep it off. I don’t think he’ll go to school tomorrow. Is that okay with you, Steve? He’ll probably be home with you tomorrow.”

“Of course,” Steve answered, still feeling a little jittery from his sudden confession to Clint. His heart started to race, and he silently cursed inside of his head. He tried to control his breathing, but he knew it was hopeless. He started to wheeze, and Phil sprang into action once again.

“Oh, Steve, sit down,” he started, pulling the chair over, “Clint, his inhaler is on top of his night stand.”

Clint rushed into Steve’s bedroom and grabbed the inhaler before rushing back into the kitchen and giving it to Steve.

Steve’s breathing calmed, and Phil went to put the inhaler back for him. Clint stood around awkwardly until he came back.

“Are you okay, Steve?” Phil asked.

“Yeah.”

Phil leaned back onto the counter. “Are you two up to watching the next Harry Potter movie? You don’t have to, if you want to go take a nap of something. I think it’s been a long day already for all of us,”

“Yeah, I want to watch it,” Clint answered.

“Can I take a nap?” Steve asked softly.

“Yes, yes, of course you can,” Phil replied, scratching his arm, “If you need anything, let me know, okay?”

“Okay,” Steve answered. He started to walk out of the kitchen, but Phil stopped him.

“Hey, wait. Steve? Can I talk to you for a minute?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, so sorry about not being great about updating. Things have gotten a little busy, but I should be able to get back into the swing of things in the next few days! I'm still trying to figure all of this out. I'm also not 100% how to use this website, so I apologize if the formatting is a little off when I post.


	7. Chapter 7

Steve looked at him, worried, and slowly nodded.

“Clint, how about you go grab the movie from downstairs and then put it in on the TV down there? I’ll just be a few minutes.”

Clint nodded and walked away.

“Let’s go ahead and sit at the table,” Phil said, walking towards the kitchen table. Steve followed him nervously. He knew he was in trouble, but as hard as he tried, he couldn’t figure out what he did wrong. Steve sat at the chair opposite of Phil and gauged the distance between them, figuring that Phil wouldn’t really be able to hit him easily if he wanted to.

“Hey Steve, have you been feeling okay for the past few days? I noticed you haven’t been eating well. Do you feel sick?” Phil asked gently. He remembered how Steve had reacted the last time he had brought it up.

Steve’s eyes widened, and he immediately apologized, “I’m sorry, I can do better.”

“You’re not in trouble, Steve. Okay? I promise. I’m worried about you, that’s all. Do you feel sick? Do you not like the food? It’s okay if you don’t, I can always make you something different.”

Steve shook his head.

“What’s wrong, then? You can tell me. I just want to help you, okay?”

Steve shook his head again. He thought that Phil would be mad at him if he said anything, so he kept his mouth shut.

Phil sighed and continued, “Bucky didn’t eat at first either. I was a little worried at first because I just thought that he didn’t like my cooking. It turned out, he hadn’t eaten solid food in five years. A crude makeshift feeding tube had been shoved down his throat every couple of days, and that’s how he had eaten for five whole years. He didn't want to eat, and the damage to his brain had made it hard for him to even remember how to. He's made a lot of progress since then, and he now eats three things: popcorn, pancakes, and ice cream. Don't really know why those are the three. They're very different textures and tastes, really. But that's Bucky. And that's okay. And if you don't want to eat yet, that's okay too. Also, if you ever want a small snack or something, you never have to ask. You can eat whatever and whenever you’d like, okay?” Phil was secretly hoping that Steve would start to eat, but just when no one was looking. He really didn’t want Steve to have to go through what Bucky had.

Steve nodded slowly.

“Okay. You can take a nap now if you’d like. Just wanted to make sure you were okay.”

"Actually...can I...um...take a shower?" Steve asked anxiously. 

Phils eyes widened, "Of course! I never showed you how to work the shower, did I? I'm so sorry Steve," he started to stand up, "Here, I can show you now."

They walked into the bathroom and Phil opened the little closet in the room, explaining, "We keep the towels here. You can take one and then just put it into the hamper on the floor when you're done, okay?" 

Steve nodded.

"And then," Phil continued, closing the closet door and pulling back the shower curtain, "shower's nothing fancy. Just pull the handle up to make it hotter or down for cooler. And I have to warn you, the water runs kinda hot, so be careful that you don't burn yourself on accident."

Steve nodded again before asking, "When am I allowed to shower?"

"Whenever you'd like," Phil said, his tone changing slightly, "You don't have to ask permission, okay? Just whenever you'd like."

Steve nodded slowly, his brow creased.

"I mean, I guess it's not exactly 'whenever' because Clint and Bucky have to shower too. Clint usually showers in the morning. I honestly can't really tell you when Bucky does though. Random times of the day. Although recently he seems to shower right after he gets home from school so I'd say it would be free basically all other times of the day," Phil rambled. "If you need anything, just let me know," he finished as he walked out of the bathroom.

Steve stood still for a moment before walking into his bedroom to grab his pajamas. He slowly walked back into the bathroom, careful not to wake Bucky, and closed the door behind him, turning the lock. He laid out his clothes on the sink, opened the closet to grab a towel, and turned the water on. He undressed and folded his worn clothes into a nice little stack on the floor. He let out a little squeak as he stepped into the shower to find the water way too hot. He turned it down and stood outside to wait a little longer. He was anxious that someone would try to walk in on him, even though he had locked the door, so he stared at the knob, praying that it wouldn’t turn. When he had finally deemed the water an appropriate temperature, this time checking it with his hand instead of accidentally scalding half of his body again, he stepped inside.

When he was done, he dried himself off and put his pajamas on before folding the towel and gently placing it on top of the others thrown in the hamper. He neatly laid out his toothbrush and toothpaste, brushed his teeth, then picked up all of his belongings and made his way to his bedroom.

Steve loved taking showers. He liked how they made him feel clean, and they temporarily lowered his anxiety, but he didn’t really know why. He placed his dirty clothes into his hamper before sprawling out on his bed and watching some TV. He was surprised at how relaxed he was, but quickly dismissed the thought. After a couple episodes of Chopped on the Food Network, Steve fell asleep.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry for not posting for over a week. I don’t have very great health, which is part of why I wanted to write a fic where some of my favorite characters are also dealing with health problems. I haven’t been too great recently and after a little trip to the hospital, I’m now on some kinda strong painkillers that sometimes make me feel too sick to leave my bed, so I apologize that uploads may be very sporadic and/or slow for a while. I promise that I won't stop until it's done though! Things might just go a little slower than I anticipated for a while.

"Steve?" Phil asked softly, slightly shaking the bed, "Clint and I are leaving for school. We'll be back around 4. Bucky's staying home today too, alright? I put a sandwich in the fridge for you for lunch. If you need anything call or text me, okay? I'm leaving Clint's old phone here on your table for you."

Steve groggily nodded and rubbed his eyes.

"Also, you've still got your hearing aides in, you might want to take those off real fast. You can go back to sleep if you’d like," Phil said as he walked out of the room and closed the door.

Steve quickly took his hearing aides out, removed the batteries, and tossed them on his bedside table before shoving his face in his pillow and falling back to sleep.

When he finally woke up around 11, he rubbed at his face before putting his hearing aides in and slowly walking out into the kitchen. His head was pounding and he was exhausted, but he was afraid of anyone finding out. Bucky was laying on the couch, a blanket pulled over him, watching some TV show of a cupcake baking competition that Steve couldn’t remember the name of. Steve went to sit in one of the armchairs and murmured, “Morning.”

“Mornin’,” Bucky replied, his eyes still on the TV.

They sat there for two hours, watching the rest of the first and another two episodes of the cupcake competition.

Steve fell asleep on the couch, giving into the exhaustion. When he woke up, he heard Phil in the kitchen making dinner. Bucky was still laying under his blanket, but he was watching the TV with a blank expression. Clint was on the other armchair with his knees up to his chest, doing homework.

“Morning sleepyhead,” Clint said smiling.

“Oh, is Steve up?” Phil asked from the kitchen.

“Yeah,” Clint called back.

Phil walked out into the family room, wiping his hands with a towel. “Are you feeling okay? Bucky said you’ve been asleep since noon and you look a little pale.”

Steve nodded, still a little groggy and his head pounding even more.

Phil eyed him a little before saying, “If you say so. Remember, you can always tell me if you’re not feeling well.”

Phil went back into the kitchen to check on the soup he had on the stove. When he opened the refrigerator to grab so more ingredients, he noticed that Steve hadn’t eaten the sandwich, and so had probably not eaten anything all day.

Once the soup was done, Phil called them in to eat. Clint and Bucky came first, with Steve following slowly behind. They all sat down at the table and Phil passed around the bowls of soup. After they prayed, Clint and Phil started to eat, but Steve just stared at his bowl. He felt too nauseous and dizzy to even try to eat. Phil glanced at him but didn’t say anything.

Soon, Steve felt too dizzy to keep his head up. He folded his arms on the table and put his head in them.

“Steve? What’s wrong?” Phil asked, setting down his spoon.

“I feel dizzy,” Steve answered weakly, giving in to telling Phil.

“Alright, Steve? I promise that I am not going to get angry at you, okay? I just need to tell me, have you eaten or drank anything since you came?”  
            Steve shook his head and his body tensed.

“Okay, buddy, we’re gonna go to the ER, okay? You’re probably really dehydrated. This happened to Bucky too. I’m not mad at you at all. I’m going to go grab some stuff before we go. Okay? Do you want me to get you anything?”

Steve shook his head.

“Alright, I’ll be back in a few minutes. If you need anything, just tell Clint or Bucky.” Phil quickly walked out of the kitchen.

Steve lifted his head back up, the dizziness subsiding

Clint was still eating his soup, and the room was silent except for the sound of his spoon clinking against the bowl.

“It hurts when they put it in, but you feel good afterwards,” Bucky murmured, his voice sounding very forced.

“What?” Steve asked.

“The tube. Hurts like hell when it goes in but you feel better after,” Bucky explained, shrugging. Steve still looked confused.

Clint looked at Bucky oddly before looking at Steve before clarifying, “It’s a feeding tube, what he’s talking about. Goes down your nose. When this happened to him, Buck had one put in before getting the one in his stomach. You might get one, I guess.”

Bucky nodded and Steve said, “Oh.”

“I don’t know. You might just get an IV or something or both. I’m not sure,” Clint answered.

Steve nodded slowly, his anxiety starting to build.

Phil walked back in carrying a bag, “I’ll text you guys with any updates, okay? Bucky, do you think you want to go to school tomorrow? We probably won’t be home until very late, unless you want to go to bed now?”

Bucky shook his head.

“Haha, I didn’t think you would,” he laughed, grabbing his keys and walking over to Steve, “Ready?”

Steve nodded and began to stand, but he started to fall forward. Phil quickly caught him and ignored the way Steve jumped when he did so. “Here, I’ve got you. You won’t fall, I promise. Come on, let’s get you to the car.” They slowly made their way out the garage door.

“Shit bro, Steve’s gonna get that tube thing, isn’t he?” Clint asked Bucky.

Bucky nodded. His feeding pump’s alarm went off and he went through the routine of taking the tubing off and going to the refrigerator to get the syringes. He preferred it when Phil did it for him, since he was afraid to make a mistake and mess it up, but he could still do it on his own.

“How bad did it hurt when they put it in?” Clint asked.

“Like hell,” Bucky answered, pushing the contents of one syringe into his stomach.

Clint laughed, "Hearing you swear never gets old. I feel like Phil would have faint right on the spot if you said that in front of him."

Bucky shrugged as he flushed the tubing and started to clean up.

Clint picked up the bowls from the table, rinsed them out, and put them in the dishwasher.

"I'll be downstairs if you need me. I want to finish my book," Clint said as he walked away.

Bucky sprawled out on the couch and put on an episode of Criminal Minds. 

His phone vibrated towards the end of the episode. It was a text from Phil in their group message, "Steve's been seen. He's on IV fluids right now for dehydration, and they're going to put an ng tube in :(. Doctors said we'll probably be home in a few hours, since I can skip the training and whatnot. Is everything okay there?" 

Within a few seconds, Clint texted back, "Yup."

Once the episode was over, Bucky decided to take a shower, since he hadn't yet that day, and he couldn't sleep unless he had showered. 

He gathered his pajamas and took a long shower, careful to make sure there wasn't a speck of dirt on him. When he was done and changed, he went to put his clothes in his hamper. He tied his hair back, because he absolutely hated getting the top of his shirt wet with his hair after he showered.

He stood in his bedroom for a while, trying to figure out what to do next. 

Since Phil wasn't home, he decided to wander around the house for a bit. He knew Phil said that he was okay with him doing that, but he still thought Phil would be angry at him if he found out, so he only did it when Phil wasn't home.

He loved walking around the house. It was gigantic. He only usually went into the kitchen, family room, bathroom, and his bedroom, but there was so much more to the house. 

He wandered into a little room, where Phil had basically transformed it into a library by lining the walls with giant bookshelves and filling them with books. Phil had told him a long time ago that he could always borrow any book that he'd like. Clint always seemed to have a book or two that he borrowed from the little library. 

Bucky wandered along the bookshelves, trying to find something that interested him. He stopped when he came to the Harry Potter books.

He had never finished the series. He was on The Order of the Phoenix before he was...his mind quickly changed the subject of his thoughts. Although he impressed himself at being able to remember which book he had been on, he struggled to remember what part he was at, so he decided to reread the whole book. 

He took the book back into the family room, made himself comfortable on the sofa, and cracked the book open.

He liked Harry Potter, well he more than just liked it, but he couldn't find the right words to describe how he felt, so he just said that he liked it. 

He had seen all of the movies, but had never finished the books. His therapist at school was trying to get him to set a small goal for himself to achieve, so he decided to make it finishing the Harry Potter series. 

After...well...coming to Phil's house, he felt close to Harry because it was almost like his past was like the Dursley's home, and Phil's house was like Hogwarts. Harry was treated so badly by his relatives, but Hogwarts treated him so kindly. 

Bucky sat and read the book until Clint came upstairs and announced that he was going to bed. Bucky turned the TV on and set the volume to very low. Just having the TV on helped him feel more relaxed when he was alone.

His phone vibrated again, and it was a text from Clint in the group message, “I’m going to bed soon. How’s Steve?”  
            Phil soon texted back, “They put the ng tube in about half an hour ago. He’s pretty tired. I think we’ll be home in about an hour.”

Bucky set his phone back down and went back to his book.

He was a little past the middle of the book when he heard the garage door opening.


	9. Chapter 9

“Heya Bucky,” Phil greeted, tossing his keys on the counter. He set a big bag down as well.

Bucky stood up and set the book down before walking into the kitchen. Steve was standing slightly behind Phil and looking down, but Bucky could see the tube coming from his nose.

“I’m going to stay home tomorrow. It’s already like,” Phil looked over at the clock, “2am. I’m going to go prepare some sub plans. Both of you are going to bed now, right?”

They both nodded.

“Alright, good. I’ll go call in for a sub and send in the plans and then I’ll come set up both of your feeding pumps. Too bad you guys don’t use the same formula, that’d be a hell of a lot easier for me.”

When Phil left the room, Bucky asked, “How bad?”

“Like hell,” Steve replied, a slight smirk on his face.

Bucky grunted out a breathy laugh. The two started to walk to their bedrooms. Bucky went into the bathroom and brushed his teeth while Steve went to find his toothbrush. Once Bucky was done, they switched spots. Bucky slid into his bedroom, only opening the door enough for him to enter before closing it tightly behind him. Steve glanced over curiously, but decided he was too tired to even care at that moment.

Steve itched at the tape on his face before going into his bedroom. He decided to lay down in his bed until Phil came. He desperately tried to stay awake, but was awaken by someone touching his ears. He let out a surprised yelp and quickly tried to swat the hands away from his face.

“Woah, it’s okay. It’s just me,” Phil said, “You fell asleep with your aides in again.”

Phil helped a very groggy Steve sit up. Steve rubbed at his ears while Phil took the batteries out of his hearing aides and set them on his bedside table. Steve didn’t pay attention to what Phil was doing, as he was using all of his energy to just stay awake.

He closed his eyes until Phil nudged him saying, “You’re all good to sleep now. If you need me, just wake me up, okay?

Steve nodded before laying back down and falling right to sleep. Phil laughed softly before leaving Steve’s bedroom, closing the door, and then going to bed.

Steve didn’t wake up until about noon, and when he did, he didn’t know what to do. The tubing connected to his nose was connected to a pump that hung on what Steve figured was some sort of IV pole like he’d seen in the hospital. Steve looked at the bag of formula hanging on top and felt confused. The bag was about three-quarters full, and he figured that it should’ve been much more empty. He wondered if Phil had come in earlier to refill it. He knew that he shouldn’t remove the tubing, but he didn’t know if he was allowed to bring the whole pole out of his bedroom. He really had to go to the bathroom. He decided to try to drag the pole into the bathroom with him. He rolled it over to his door before carefully opening the door and peeking out into the hallway. When he saw that the coast was clear, he rolled the pole to the bathroom and quickly closed the door behind him. After he was done, he started to open the bathroom door slowly, but he froze when the door hit something and stopped halfway.

“I thought I heard you up,” Phil said, smiling.

Steve stared at him, his eyes wide, “I’m sorry. I didn’t know what to do…”

“Huh? Oh, the pole? You’re fine; you didn’t do anything wrong. You don't have to drag that thing around though; Bucky’s got an older backpack that you can use. Here, if you want to wait in your bedroom or the family room or something, I can go grab it from his bedroom,” Phil suggested.

Steve nodded, a little confused. He walked into his room, dragging the pole behind him. A few minutes later, Phil came back in.

“There’s nothing wrong with it, that’s not why Bucky doesn’t use it anymore. It’s because this thing’s blue,” Phil said, holding the backpack up, “He used it for a while, back when he didn’t really speak. One of the first things he told me was that he wanted a black backpack instead of a blue one,” he rambled as he started to undo the tubing from the pole and put everything into the backpack before handing it to Steve. Steve wrapped it around his shoulders.

“Bucky’s in the dining room. He found another puzzle earlier and he was doing that for a while, but the last time I went in, he was reading a book. Speaking of that, there’s a library in this house, and you can borrow a book anytime you want, don’t have to ask. Clint’s at school, and I’m probably going to be in the study. I’ve got some papers to grade.”

After Phil left, Steve sat for a moment trying to decide what to do. He still wasn't quite sure how to work the TV in the family room, and he was still afraid to explore the house, so he decided to go see what Bucky was up to.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright! All of that craziness from before is over, so I should be able to get back into this! I'm very excited. My plan for right now is at least an update every Wednesday! (maybe some in between :) ) Sorry about the wait!

 

When he walked in, Bucky put his book down, placing a scrap of notebook paper in it to mark the page. 

“Found this earlier,” he said, pointing to the puzzle. Steve just stood at the door. Bucky picked up one of the pieces and started looking for its place. After a few minutes, Steve shuffled into the room and sat down in one of the chairs. He was reminded of the backpack that he was wearing when he tried to sit back in the chair.

“S’annoying,” he grunted before adding, “and sore.”

Bucky smirked, “Don’t get tubing caught on anything. Even worse.”

Steve made a face and began to do the puzzle with him. Two hours had passed when Phil came in and announced that he was done grading papers. He joined them at the table and started to help with the almost completed puzzle.

“So Buck, how opposed would you be to going to school tomorrow? I know it’s a Wednesday, but you’ve already missed two days. If you want to stay home though, that’s completely fine,” Phil asked as he pushed a piece into its place.

Bucky slowly set his piece down. He stared at the table, thinking.

“You don’t have to decide right now, and whatever you decide is perfectly fine,” Phil reassured him.

“Um…can I go tomorrow?” Steve asked quietly.

Phil’s smiled, “You want to go tomorrow?”

Steve nodded.

“Of course you can! I just want to make sure that you are comfortable with that.”

Steve nodded again.

“Okay that’s awesome! We’ll have to get some things ready tonight, and I’ll tell your teacher to let her know. Remember, if at any time from now until tomorrow you decide that you don’t want to go anymore, that’s okay too. It’s all up to you.”

“I’ll go,” Bucky murmured, still staring at the table.

Phil smiled again, “Ah! Good! It’s probably best that you be there on Steve’s first day. You can show him around and everything.”

Bucky didn’t look up and his expression didn’t change, but he nodded slowly.

An alarm on Phil’s phone went off loudly and the two boys jumped then froze. “Ah, sorry,” Phil said, quickly turning down the volume, “I had no idea it would be that loud. I set a reminder on here to pick up Clint. Your class, which is the class that Clint’s in too, gets out a little later than the rest of the school. It starts a little earlier and ends a little later, which sounds bad, but I bet you’ll like it better that way. I know Clint and Bucky do, right?”

Bucky nodded in agreement, finally looking up from the table.

“They do that so you won’t feel overwhelmed or uncomfortable by coming or leaving when the rest of the school does too. There’s a lot of other students there at those times, but not at the others. Does that make sense? Sorry, I’m not sure exactly how to explain it.”

Steve nodded.

“Okay, well I better get going,” Phil said, standing up out of his chair. “Wait! Do you want to come with me to pick up Clint?  Maybe it would be good for you to see the school tonight so you know if you want to go tomorrow or wait a little longer?”

Steve nervously fidgeted with the tubing at his side before looking up and nodding his head.

“Awesome! Bucky, do you want to come or just stay here?” Phil asked.

“Come.”

“Alright, let’s get in the car then!”

Phil thought it was kind of funny that the two boys sat in the back of the car, neither one choosing to sit in the front.

As they pulled out of the neighborhood, Phil said, “You can also see your teacher, Steve.”

Steve froze.

“You don’t have to talk to her, okay? She’ll understand. It just might be nice to see what she looks like, yeah? She’s a very sweet lady; I think you’ll like her a lot.”

The rest of the drive was silent except for the hum of the radio playing songs that Steve couldn’t quite hear.

When they pulled into the school parking lot, Phil started to point out little details about the school, trying to distract Steve from any anxiety. When they got into the school, an older woman greeted them from behind a desk, “Hey Phil! We missed you today!” She looked at Bucky oddly for a moment before her attention shifted to Steve, “Oh, you must be Steve! It’s nice to meet you!” She smiled gently, but Steve shrunk in on himself slightly.

Phil quickly caught on, “Yep! This is Steve. He’s thinking about coming into school tomorrow so he decided to come with me to pick up Clint.” He moved forward slightly in front of Steve to give him something to hide behind. Bucky stared at the ground.

“Oh well that’s very exciting! Well I don’t want to keep Clint waiting, so I guess I’ll see you tomorrow!” she said, going back to her work.

“See you then!” Phil answered, turning left and walking into the hallway. The two boys followed closely behind. Phil started rambling about little details of the school again.

A couple of students were sitting on the benches, probably staying after for help with homework or waiting to be picked up. A few of them stared at Bucky before whispering to each other. Bucky tensed greatly. Steve was very confused. Hadn’t they seen Bucky before? Shouldn’t they be staring at him. He was grateful that none of them even seemed to notice him.

Bucky stared straight ahead, his body very tense even as they were past the students on the benches. He had his hair down around his face. “Alright, so the classroom is down here,” Phil started, turning around a bit, “Woah, Bucky, are you okay?” He asked, stopping.

Bucky didn’t move. Phil stood awkwardly, trying to figure it out. After a few moments he glanced at the students, then back at Bucky. “Oh! Crap! I’m sorry! I didn’t even think about that!” He said, his eyes wide. “Here, we’re almost there.”

When they got to the classroom, the door was open slightly. Phil knocked softly and opened the door.

A woman greeted him, “Hey Mr.Coulson!”

“Hi Ms. Hill! I brought Steve here with me because he is thinking about coming tomorrow and I thought it would be a good idea for him to see the school and everything before he decides.”

She looked over at Steve and smiled softly, “Hello Steve! I’m Ms. Hill, and I’ll be your teacher. Steve slightly smiled back at her before looking at the ground. Here, if you want to look around that would be fine! There’s not many people left, just Thor and Loki and of course Clint.”

Steve saw Clint and two other boys sitting at a table playing a board game. “Hey, you guys wanna join?” Clint asked.

“Actually, I have to talk to Ms. Hill for a bit about tomorrow and fill out some paperwork, so maybe you guys should go over there? If you don’t want to that’s okay,” Phil said, walking over with Ms. Hill to her desk.

Steve glanced over at Bucky, who had already started walking towards the table. He followed behind. Bucky sat down next to a big blond guy which left the only open seat next to the smaller boy with black hair. The boy hunched in on himself slightly when Steve sat down. “This is Thor,” Clint said, pointing at the blond before pointing at the boy sitting next to him, “and this is Loki.”


	11. Chapter11

There was an awkward silence before Thor laughed loudly and said, “It is nice to meet you, Steve. My brother Loki is not much of a talker, you see.” Thor had some sort of accent, but Steve couldn’t place it.

            Steve smiled politely before looking down.

            “So we’re just playing checkers right now. Me against Thor. And he is going down,” Clint teased.

            “That will not be tolerated,” Thor countered, smirking.

            Thor and Clint started back into the game when Loki turned to Steve and murmured, “They’re always like this.” Loki’s voice surprised Steve. It had the same accent as Thor’s, but it was much smoother.

            Steve smirked a little and replied, “I believe it.”

            An older woman walked into the room. “Oh, Thor and Loki, looks like it’s time to go!” Ms. Hill called over.

            “But there are only a few more moves left in our game. Surely we can finish it?” Thor asked the older woman.

            “Sorry boys, but we have to go,” the woman replied with a soft smile.

            Thor sighed in defeat. He stood up and walked over to Loki, helped him out of the chair, and led him to the door. Loki leaned heavily on his brother. Steve found himself staring curiously and looked away.

            “Loki? Where are your crutches?” the older woman asked.

            Loki didn’t respond, so Thor said, “He didn’t bring them today.”

            “Oh. Mrs. C didn’t tell me.” The two boys and the woman walked out of the room.

            “Well shit. Now I can’t beat him,” Clint muttered, “Maybe I’ll just leave this here so we can finish tomorrow.”

Phil walked over and announced that he was done with the paperwork, and they could leave.

“It was nice meeting you Steve. I hope you can come tomorrow!” Ms. Hill said as they walked out.

As they turned into the hallway with the benches, Bucky tensed, but quickly relaxed as he saw that there were no students left.

            “Alright, so how about we pick up something for dinner? I didn’t end up going to the grocery store today, so I don’t know what all I could make,” Phil suggested.

            “Can we get McDonald’s?” Clint asked.

            Phil sighed, “Yeah. But no caffeine, okay?”

            “Okay.”

            When they arrived at the drive-thru, Phil asked, “Clint do you want your usual?” Clint nodded. “Bucky, do you want a vanilla milkshake?”

            Bucky thought for a moment before nodding.

            “What about you Steve? Do you want one? Might be easier to down compared to solid food. Plus, it’ll just be a small one.”

            “Sure.”

            Once their food had been ordered and paid for, they waited at the last window to get it.

“So Clint, how was school?” Phil asked.

“Okay.”

“Got much homework?”

“No, none.”

“Good,” Phil answered. The window opened and the employee inside handed Phil his food. He passed the drinks to Clint who then passed the two milkshakes to the back and put the other two drinks into the cup holders in the front.

Bucky sipped a little at his milkshake and Steve mimicked him. It felt so good to have the cold liquid go down his throat, which had become pretty dry. After only a few sips though, he started to feel full and a little nauseous, so he stopped.

When they got home, Phil started to unpack the food and asked, “So how about we watch some TV or something and then head to bed early? I think we could all use a good night’s sleep. The past few days have been pretty crazy.”

The three boys agreed and soon they were all on the couch with their dinners, watching some movie Phil found while scrolling through the channels. Steve sipped on his milkshake and to his surprise, quickly finished it. He still felt a little sick, but he hoped it would quickly go away. He placed the cup on the table beside him and settled into the couch. Bucky had finished half of his and placed the other half in the freezer for later. 

“Crap,” Phil said suddenly, pausing the movie, “Steve, I need to get you a backpack. What time is it,” he started, looking at his watch, “Little after 6:30. Alright, I’m going to go to the store and pick one up, do you want to come with me Steve?”

Steve didn’t answer right away.

“Or do you just want to tell me what color you’d like?”

Steve nodded and said, “Blue, if you can find it.”

“Yeah,” Phil said, standing up and stretching, “I think they’ve got a blue one. There’s this one brand that I got for Bucky that’s big enough to hold a feeding pump as well so I’ll try to see if they’ve got one of those in blue. I think I remember seeing one. I know they’ve got them in black, which is what Bucky got, but I’m fairly certain they’ll have blue. If they don’t, will black be okay?”

Steve nodded.

“Alright, I’ll be back soon,” Phil called out as he grabbed his keys, “Call if you need me!” The garage door closed shut.

“I’m going to take a shower,” Bucky mumbled, standing up.

“I’ll take one after,” Steve said.

Bucky nodded curtly before leaving.

Steve got up and threw his cup into the trash before going right back to the couch.

“So it’s probably best that I tell you about everyone in our class. I mean, no one really hides it, but it’s not something that just comes up casually in a conversation,” Clint started.

“Oh, um…yeah, that would be nice,” Steve answered.

“You know that the class is specifically for kids like us that have been through traumatic experiences and whatnot, so obviously everyone’s got a story. So if you’re cool with it, I can tell you. I know it really lessened my anxiety when I finally find out about everyone. I don’t like not knowing things and stuff. Brings me back to bad times.”

Steve didn’t say anything, but looked at Clint curiously.


	12. Chapter12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! I tried something different in this chapter and was more direct with details about some of the characters. I'm not sure I like it all that much, so I'll probably go back to my usual style! I hope you all have an awesome day! :) .

“Okay so there’s now eight of us, including you. Us three, Tony, Bruce, Natasha, and then of course Thor and Loki. So you already met Thor and Loki, so I’ll start with them. You know which one’s which, right?”

Steve nodded.

“Good. So they were actually born in…oh shit…I can’t remember now…shit…um some little village or town or something in Europe, I think. Loki was adopted into their family when he was like a baby or something. Basically, their father was this big rich mob boss kind of guy that got himself into heaps of trouble with other mobs and stuff. Their mother was killed when they were like 9 and 10 by some people mad at their father. A couple years later, the same people drugged Thor to sleep and took Loki when they were walking home from school or something. Then those people found their dad and shot him in front of Loki. Turns out Loki was the biological son of one of their families or something; they were really pissed, and it was really bad. They beat Loki until he was barely breathing and left him by his dead father. Thor woke up on the sidewalk like half an hour later. He found them when he walked into the house.”

“Shit,” Steve breathed.

Clint laughed awkwardly, “Never heard you swear before.”

Steve shrugged.

“They both live with a super nice foster family who lives a couple streets down. It’s this older couple that are retired doctors, which is really good because Loki ended up a lot like Bucky, with a TBI. He has a very hard time focusing, he’s also got a feeding tube, and sometimes gets these things called absence seizures, which Bucky gets too. He’s got a hell of a lot of PTSD, but of course that’s nothing abnormal in our class. He also can’t really walk all that well, as you probably saw earlier. He usually uses these crutches, but sometimes he’ll just have Thor help him or use a wheelchair. Thor’s not always in our class; he takes a couple regular classes during the day. Oh, I take one, so I wont be in class for like 40 minutes, but Bucky will. Anyways, Thor wasn’t physically hurt like Loki was, but he’s also got PTSD which makes him really anxious or paranoid at times, so he prefers to be with us.”

“Wow,” Steve whispered, “does everyone else have a story like that?”

“Um, a little. I mean, this is a class full of people who have been through hell and back, so there’s a lot of similar things. You ever heard of Stark Industries?”

“Of course,” Steve answered.

“So you’ve heard about what happened with Howard Stark?” Clint asked.

“He was killed, right?”

“Yeah. But what didn’t get released to the papers was that Howard Stark’s son was taken for an insanely high ransom a month before. Like, this ransom was so high that even the Starks couldn’t pay it, so really insane. Well, what was never ever released before was that his son had a really bad heart condition, but of course this was the Stark family, so he had the best care possible. He was taken and beaten really really badly. His father contacted the police and they were searching for him for a few days. Well, it turns out that it was all a big trap, and when Mr. and Mrs. Stark went out to search for their son themselves, they were killed, and their son was dropped off in front of Stark Tower, barely alive. So that’s Tony. He doesn’t talk about it much, but he has to have this little machine attached to his chest to keep his heart going. I’m not sure what exactly it does, but it kinda glows and sometimes you can see it through his shirt. He doesn’t like anyone to ask about it or touch it or anything, just as a warning. He stays in the class the whole day, which kinda sucks because he can be a really big dick sometimes.”

Steve laughed slightly.

“And then there’s Bruce, don’t know much about him to be honest. He’s crazy smart. He’s got some pretty intense social anxiety because he wasn’t allowed to leave his house by his abusive father for basically all of his life. Don’t be offended if he doesn’t talk to you very much, especially at first; he’s not trying to be mean or anything. He’s got pretty severe rage too, but it doesn’t come out often. He can lose control of himself and shit when he’s angry though, which is kinda scary.”

Clint noticed Steve’s anxious expression and added, “Oh, don’t worry. I’ve known him for a year and I can count the number of times he’s been angry on one hand. It doesn’t happen that often, and he’s usually very calm otherwise. But his rage is from being around like only his father for most of his life. His mother died when he was like 5, and only after he was taken from his father last year was it discovered that he had killed her in front of him. Before, it had been deemed a murder from some intruder. The government actually didn’t know Bruce was alive until one of his neighbors was fixing the fence between their houses and saw him tied up to a tree in his backyard. Right now he’s living with this lady that is helping him to adapt to a normal life, which I think has been good for him.”

Clint stood up and stretched before sitting down again, “Sorry, my muscles get stiff really fast. The last person is Natasha. She’s…well…she’s quite the person. She’s like my best friend, and she can come off as an incredibly terrifying person, but she can’t control it sometimes. She’s from Russia. She was taken as a baby and basically trained to be a weapon for this like really creepy assassin organization. Luckily, the organization was discovered before it was too late and she was saved and brought here to the US. She said that when she first came here, she kept trying to attack everyone that came near her, because that’s all she knew how to do. She picked up English pretty fast, and was able to start trusting a few people. She still has her moments where the brainwashed weapon side of her comes out, but it’s pretty easy to get her out of it quickly. She’s never tried to attack anyone in our class, so again, don’t worry. She also still speaks Russian, which is pretty cool. Did I tell you that Bucky can speak it too?”

Steve looked up at him, surprised, and shook his head.

“Yeah, the people that took him spoke it in an attempt to get Bucky to not understand what they were saying. It didn’t work all that well though because Bucky picked up on it as fast as he could to be able to be aware of what was going on, and now Bucky can speak Russian pretty well. It just sucks sometimes because Nat and him will have these little side conversations in Russian, and we have no idea what they’re saying. Probably shit-talking all of us. Bucky doesn’t speak it much outside of that though, as it kinda reminds him of his time in captivity. When he does though, it’s pretty cool.”

“Wow,” Steve said. He couldn’t think of anything else to say. 


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ahhhh sorry this is so late! I will try harder next week to be on time! Thank you so much for supporting me! Have a great day (or night, if you're like me and read at very odd hours of the night)!

“Yeah, crazy stuff,” Clint responded.

“What happens at school?” Steve asked.

“What do you mean?”  
        “Just…what happens…I think…”

“Oh! Like what do we do?”

Steve nodded.

“Well,” Clint started, “you know, we’re not even close to the definition of ‘normal’ students, so we don’t really have ‘normal’ school, if that makes sense. Like, we still learn things but it’s more relaxed, I guess.”

Steve nodded slowly before asking nervously, “Do I have to take gym?”

“Wait. You got a feeding tube jammed up your nose last night, you’re going to a new school tomorrow, and the only thing on your mind is if you have to take gym?” Clint laughed.

Steve just stared back at him.

“Damn,” Clint exclaimed, throwing his head back, “you are just like Bucky. Now I have to deal with two of you.”

Steve looked at him, confused.

“First day Bucky went, he wasn’t nervous about his arm and stuff or even about being around so many people. He didn’t want to take hard math. Said he couldn’t remember math well even before.” He laughed again before answering, “And no, we don’t take gym.”

Bucky shuffled into the room, his wet hair pulled back with an elastic tie. He moved to sit down on his part of the couch as Clint joked, “Speak of the devil...”

Bucky didn’t respond, and instead stared at the coffee table. He looked completely exhausted and was slumped into the fabric.

“Shit man, you look beat,” Clint mumbled.

Bucky still didn’t do anything.

The garage door started opening, and Clint said, “Oh, looks like Phil’s back.”

Just a few moments later, Phil walked inside. “Here,” he started, setting down his keys and carrying two plastic bags over to Steve, “I found the blue one. I also got you some pencils and pens, and a couple folders. I’ll have to quickly modify the backpack tonight and then it’ll be all ready to go for tomorrow.” He stretched his arms, “Shouldn’t take too long, but I’ll probably get around to it after you fall asleep, if that’s okay with you.”

Steve nodded.

“Woah, Bucky. You look exhausted. If you wanna go to your room now, I’ll be there in a few minutes,” Phil offered.

Bucky nodded slowly, still not looking up, and shuffled out.

“You still going to take a shower, Steve?” Phil asked as he took the contents of the bags out and placed them on the counter.

“Yeah, if that’s okay.”

“Of course it is. It’s probably a good idea for you to get to bed early tonight. Big day tomorrow. I’ll come in afterwards to get your feeding pump set up for the night. Don’t worry about staying up for me.”

Steve nodded and walked into his bedroom, gathered his things, and went to the bathroom. When he was finished showering, he went to his bed, popped out his hearing aides, and quickly fell asleep.

He awoke to Phil gently nudging him, “Hey, it’s 6:30. Time to get up. We gotta leave at 7.”

Steve groggily sat up and rubbed at the tape keeping the NG tube in as Phil unhooked him from the pole.

“Clint’s awake already, and I just got Bucky up. Make sure to dress kind of warm. It’s pretty chilly outside today,” he said as he left the bedroom and closed the door.

Steve got up and picked out his clothes. He settled on a comfortable blue hoodie and a pair of jeans. He quickly changed before going to brush his teeth and walking to the kitchen. Bucky already had his backpack on, the center strap secured in the center. He also had his prosthetic arm on, which Steve thought was a little odd.

“Here you go Steve,” Phil said, handing him his own blue backpack, “everything’s already in there and I primed the tubing so all you need to do is attach it.”

“Thank you,” Steve answered as he slung the backpack on his back and attached the long tubing to the one from his nose.

“Alright, it’s 6:54, we should go ahead and get into the car. Clint, just bring your breakfast with you,” Phil said, picking up his bag and keys.

“Ah no, but then Thor will want some of my Pop Tart,” Clint frowned, placing his breakfast into a paper towel.

“Well then, just finish it in the car instead. Easy,” Phil laughed.

Clint just grumbled in response, “I’m not hungry for it yet.”

When they arrived at the school, there were a few early students milling around. None of the students paid much attention to them, besides the one who quickly glanced at Steve. He tried to ignore it. When they reached the classroom, Ms. Hill greeted them before chatting with Phil.

“Good. Thor’s not here yet,” Clint said as he plopped down at a desk and unraveled the paper towel. Steve stuck to Bucky like his shadow as Bucky moved to sit next to Clint. Steve sat down as well and looked over to the only other student in the room, a boy with his head down, wearing large headphones, and a travel mug on the corner of his desk.

Clint leaned over a bit and said, “That’s Bruce. The lady he lives with has to drop him off super early so he usually falls back to sleep here. Also, that kid chugs tea like nobody’s business. It’s incredible to watch.”

Steve nodded and looked down at the desk. The more he started to wake up, the more his anxiety worsened, and the events of the past few days fully hit him. He had a tube in his nose. He volunteered to come to school much earlier than he was expected to. He was at a High School. A High School. A place filled with lots and lots of people who he didn’t know anything about. What if he saw someone he knew? Plenty of his old friends had moved away and lost contact; could they be here? Would they recognize him? His anxiety was really spiking.

He was taken out of his thoughts by Clint reaching over and tapping his shoulder, “You okay?”

Steve nodded. He looked over at the girl who seemed to appear out of nowhere, sitting next to Clint.

“Oh! Steve, this is Natasha. Natasha, Steve,” Clint introduced.

“Hello,” Natasha said. Even though she had simply greeted him, Steve felt incredibly intimidated by her. Instead of verbally answering, he gave her a polite smile and looked down.

Clint and Natasha went back into their conversation. Steve glanced over at Bucky, who had a pink rubber eraser in his hand and was fiddling with it. He noticed that Bucky’s prosthetic arm was off and sitting on the floor under the desk.

Suddenly, someone came up behind him and tapped his shoulder, making him jump.


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh. My. Goodness. I. Am. So. Sorry.  
> A lot of things have happened to me in the past few months (some good!) and unfortunately this story had to be put on the back burner. But, now that things have been all figured out, I can come back to this! I'm so excited! I have lots planned, and right now I'm thinking one update every Wednesday! I know how much it sucks to be in the middle of a good story and suddenly the author stops updating, so I'm sorry I did that to you.

The tap made Steve panic. His breathing became wheezy and labored.

            “Ah, shit. Sorry man,” a voice said behind him.

            Ms. Hill calmly walked over and gave him his inhaler. When he caught his breath, she asked, “Are you okay?”

            Steve nodded and handed the inhaler back to her. As she walked away, the same voice from before said, “Sorry man. Didn’t really think that one through. I’m Tony.”

            Tony had walked around to the front of Steve’s desk and pulled up a chair. “So,” he started, crossing his arms on the desk, “what’re you into?”

            “What?” Steve asked.

            “Ya’know, what’re you into? What do you like to do?” Tony replied.

            “Oh...um…I don’t know,” Steve answered, unable to think.

            “What do you mean you don’t know? There’s gotta be something you like to do.”

            “Puzzles,” Bucky suddenly muttered. He hadn’t looked up from from fiddling with the eraser.

            “Oh, yeah. I like to do puzzles,” Steve said.

            “Hmm…interesting,” Tony answered, tipping his chair on its back legs. “I like taking things apart. Seeing what makes them tick.”

            “Oh. Cool.” Steve replied quietly.

            “So you’re with Coulson, right?” Tony asked.

            Steve nodded.

            “What a good dude. I can barely deal with myself, let alone three other guys like me.” Tony put his chair back on all fours as the bell rang, signaling the start of the school day.

            The morning was a blur to Steve. Clint had been right, they did do actual school activities like math, science, and English, but it was very relaxed, and they only did one topic a day. Ms. Hill was very patient with him while she tried to quickly catch him up to the rest of the class on the topic of the day, which was math.

During lunch, he sat with Bucky and Loki and put together a small puzzle while everyone else ate. At one point, Loki suddenly looked to his left and started tapping his puzzle piece on the table. Bucky looked up before going back to doing the puzzle, which left Steve confused.

Loki stopped almost as quickly as he started and he went back to looking at the table. He looked confused for a moment before muttering, “Sorry.”

“Don’t be,” Bucky said almost as equally quiet.

They went back to silently putting the puzzle together. By the time the others had finished their lunch, the three had finished. The image was a city street that Steve assumed was most likely from New York.

            Right after lunch, Clint left to go to his class. Steve suddenly felt anxious without him. He still had Bucky, but he felt like he was alone. Almost like he read Steve’s mind, Bucky scooted his chair ever so slightly closer to him. Once Clint left, Thor moved to sit at their table next to Loki.

            The class continued with math, and they were assigned a worksheet to complete for homework. “Just like always,” Ms. Hill started, “you have the rest of the day to work and you can work with a partner if you’d like. When you’re done or if you just need a break, you can do whatever you’d like,” she paused and looked at Tony, “within reason of course.”

Tony smirked before speeding through his worksheet with Bruce. They each had work from other classes to complete as well. Neither of them physically went to the classes like Thor and Clint, but they did the classwork.

Bucky began his work, and Steve did as well. Thor and Loki quietly talked to each other while they worked. 

Stuck on a problem, Steve asked Bucky, “Do you know how to do number 4?”

Bucky shrugged and scooted his paper over to show Steve. His handwriting was quite messy, especially in comparison to Steve’s neat script, but it was still legible.

“Oh, okay. I get it now. Thanks,” Steve said, finishing the problem.

Bucky scribbled down the rest of his worksheet before stuffing it into a folder in his backpack. He sat and fiddled with his eraser until Steve was done.

“How much longer until we leave?” Steve asked.

Bucky glanced over at the clock, “About an hour and a half.” The bell rang and Bucky added, “Clint’s done.”

A moment after Bucky said that, Clint walked back into the classroom.

“Clinton Francis Barton,” Thor boomed.

“Thor do-you-even-have-a-middle-name Odinson,” Clint answered, setting his backpack by the chair next to Steve.

“We have a game to finish, do we not?” Thor asked, walking over to the cabinet where the games were stored.

“Ah, my friend,” Clint started, sitting down and cracking his knuckles, “I believe we do.”

“Not this again,” Loki said under his breath, smirking.

Bucky stopped fiddling with his eraser and watched Thor as he took the checkers game out of the box and set up the board.

After a solid thirty minutes of each boy taking an obscene amount of time to make their moves and a lot of trash talking, the game ended with Thor winning.

“That was a good game, my amateur friend,” he teased, extending his hand.

Clint shook it, exclaiming, “Amateur? Who you calling an amateur? This is the first time you’ve won any game in the past week.”

“You guys are idiots,” Natasha murmured.

“Yes, but I believe that this is setting a precedent. Prepare for lots of defeat in the near future,” Thor answered, putting the game back into the box.

“We’ll see about that,” Clint replied, leaning down to open his backpack. “I need your help on chem.”

“I will help you, but only if you rephrase your sentence.”

Clint sighed, “I need your all-knowing genius in chemistry to help me complete my assignment, oh wise one.”

“Wise one, nice addition,” Tony called out from his hunched over position at one of the desks.

Thor and Clint started to work on chemistry together as Natasha moved to sit by Steve and Bucky.

“So,” she started, sitting in the chair, “your name is Steve, right?”

Steve nodded.

Natasha didn’t respond to him, and instead said something to Bucky in Russian.

Bucky lifted his head up, his brow furrowed, and said something back.

Natasha smiled and replied.

Bucky slowly chuckled.

Steve suddenly felt very self-conscious, afraid that they were talking about him.   
            Clint called Natasha over, asking about one of his homework problems. She rolled her eyes as she got up and went over to help.

The bell to signal the end of the day rang and Bucky murmured, “Phil’ll be here soon. Maybe twenty minutes.”

“Okay,” Steve answered.


	15. Chapter 15

            Those twenty minutes passed fairly quickly and before Steve knew it, Phil was walking through the classroom’s door.

            “Hey Ms. Hill!” he greeted, “Everyone have a good day?”

            “Yep! Steve had a bit of an asthma attack but nothing we couldn’t handle,” she replied.

            Phil then walked over to Clint, who was still getting help from Natasha, “You have PT today, I forgot about it.”

            “Oh shoot, really?” Clint asked.

            “Yeah, I forgot that we rescheduled it from Monday after Bucky told me that Steve wasn’t doing well.”

            “Oh yeah. Okay I’ll get my stuff,” Clint answered, picking up his things and putting them into his backpack.

            “Steve? Bucky?” Phil asked, turning towards them, “We gotta take Clint to PT today. Sorry guys, I completely forgot. It’s only down the street a bit so we can come back to my classroom to relax and wait for him. I have to clean up from today’s lab and do some grading.”

            Bucky nodded once in acknowledgement and started to put his prosthetic on.

            As they walked out of the classroom, Loki quietly said goodbye, followed by a booming one from Thor.

            Phil fiddled with his car keys in his right hand as they walked through the hallways and out into the parking lot.

            “I was worried we’d get there late,” he rambled as they all got into the car, “but it looks like we’ll be just fine.”

            They drove the short five-minutes before checking Clint in at the center and waving goodbye. Steve could tell that Clint seemed a little apprehensive about Phil leaving, but Clint didn’t say anything.

            “Alright,” Phil said as they piled back into the car, “I’m going to set a timer on my phone for an hour and 15 minutes, which should give us 15 minutes to get back before his session ends.”

            They made their way back into the school and went down a different series of hallways before arriving at Phil’s classroom.

            Steve looked around the classroom, taking it all in. As a chemistry teacher, Phil had a classroom where the front half was set up with desks and a projector screen, and the back half with a chemistry lab. There were beakers, stirring rods, and hot plates strewn all over from that day’s lab. Phil explained that usually his students cleaned up their own lab tables, but he had lost track of time in his final class and the bell had rang before the students had a chance to clean, and that bell signaled that the buses would leave in less than ten minutes.

            “You in the mood for cleaning up? Phil asked Bucky. Phil knew that repetitive activities, like cleaning the lab, were really calming for Bucky.

He nodded and tucked his hair behind his ear.

“Alright, see those beakers, the ones on the hot plates? I need you to grab all of them and put them in the sink for me. I’ll clean them out tomorrow morning.”

Bucky nodded and went to work.

Phil turned to Steve and said, “I’ve got a few more papers to grade and then we’ve got to pick up Clint from PT and I’m thinking for dinner we might…”

Bucky let out a pained noise before there was the sound of glass shattering. Bucky had picked up a beaker from a hot plate that had accidentally been left on, and dropped it onto the ground.

“Oh shit! Bucky!” Phil exclaimed as he jumped and rushed over to Bucky. Bucky’s eyes were unfocused and he quickly backed into the nearest wall, trying to get as much distance between himself and Phil as possible.

Phil immediately stopped and put his hands up. “Hey, woah, I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking. I’m not angry; I’m sorry for yelling. I just got scared. I’m not going to hurt you, I promise, but I need to see your hand, okay? I need to see how badly it’s burned. I won’t even touch it if that makes you feel better.”

Bucky’s face was emotionless, and his eyes still unfocused. It creeped Steve out and he looked away.

“Please, Bucky. We need to know if you have to go to the hospital, okay? Remember, I won’t touch it; I only want to look.”

Bucky tentatively reached his hand out. Phil moved closer, and Bucky tensed but didn’t retract his hand.

“Okay it looks like it’s a first degree. We can put some salve on it and wrap it up when we get home, okay? Nothing major, but your hand will probably hurt a lot for a couple of days.”

Bucky put his hand down but didn’t make any other movements.

“Alright, how about we go home and take care of your hand? We’ve got another hour before we have to pick Clint up, and I can always just clean this up tomorrow morning,” Phil suggested.

Bucky didn’t respond verbally, but he took a step away from the wall.

“You okay with that, Steve? Do you think you could help me grade these tests tonight? It’ll be easy; I’ve already got the answer key made.”

Steve nodded.

“Okay,” Phil started, “I’m going to quickly check to make sure none of the other hot plates were left on, and then we can go.”

He went around the tables before coming back and grabbing his car keys. He kept an eye on Bucky, who was still tense and acting strangely, as they walked to the car.

When they got to the house and pulled into the garage, Bucky seemed more relaxed. Phil opened the door to the house and let the boys inside before turning around to hit the button to close the garage door.

As soon as the door started to close, Phil heard a crash from the kitchen. He ran inside the house to find Bucky on the floor having a seizure. He calmly but quickly got him onto his side and put his arm on Bucky’s shoulder. He repeated the usual phrases, “Bucky, it’s okay. We’re here. You’re okay.” Steve stood to the side, unsure of what to do.

After a little over two and a half minutes, Bucky stopped seizing.

“Hey,” Phil said gently, “How are you feeling?”

Bucky just shook his head in response.

“Are you tired?”

Another head shake.

“Okay. Just lay here for a minute and then you can get up, okay? And we’ll put something on your hand to help it heal.”


	16. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey! I got a little sick last week and couldn't post, but I promise I'm still here!

After a moment of laying down, Bucky slowly sat up on his own.

“Are you dizzy at all?” Phil asked.

He shook his head again.

“Okay. Do you want to lay on the couch? Maybe watch some TV?”

He nodded and slowly stood up with Phil’s help. Phil guided him to the couch, since Bucky was a little shaky on his feet. He shimmied his backpack off before plopping onto the couch.

“If you want to take your arm off I can put it back in your room when I get the stuff for your hand,” Phil offered.

Bucky nodded, unclipped the arm, and handed it to him before pulling his legs up onto the couch.

Steve sat down in an armchair as Phil left the room.

When Phil came back, he asked, “Is the pain really bad? Or more sore now?”

“Sore.”

“Oh, that’s good,” Phil answered as he unscrewed the cap of the bottle, “So, I know I said I wouldn’t touch your hand, but I’m not sure of how to get this on your hand without me touching it. Are you okay with that?”

Bucky nodded, looking away.

“Okay, let me know if I’m hurting you,” Phil replied as he spread the cream on Bucky’s hand. Bucky didn’t move. Just as Phil was almost done, Bucky cried out in pain.

“Did I hurt you?” Phil asked, pulling his hands away.

Bucky’s hand shot up to his left shoulder and his face contorted as he cried out again.

“Shit, okay. Okay, give me one second,” Phil said as he ran out of the room.

Steve didn’t know what to do. He found himself saying, “What’s wrong?” even though he knew how much he hated it when people did that to him.

“Spasms,” Bucky said through his gritted teeth.

Phil ran back in holding two syringes. He quickly uncapped them and told Bucky to take his shirt off.

Bucky cried out two more times as he carefully took his shirt off, revealing the PICC line on his arm as well as the feeding tube button on his stomach.

Phil inserted one of the syringes into the line and then the other one. Bucky had his eyes closed and his face was still scrunched up.

Soon, he opened his eyes and relaxed into the couch again.

“Alright,” Phil said, stepping back and looking at both boys, “I need to go pick up Clint. If anything happens, call me. Please try to stay in one piece, at least until I get back.” An alarm on his phone went off quietly and he smiled, “Perfect timing!” He grabbed his keys, and with a final goodbye, he was out the door.

Bucky picked up the remote and started flipping through the channels. He decided on Family Feud before tossing the remote back onto the table.

The two watched the show until the second commercial break, when Bucky jolted up. “Wanna know something cool?” he asked suddenly. His head was tilted to the side slightly and his mouth hung open just a little bit.

Steve looked at him, confused.

“If you go into the bathroom and open your mouth in front of the mirror, you can see that tube in your throat. Used to do it a lot. Thought it was funny.”

“Oh,” Steve answered, still confused.

Bucky stood up and stumbled slightly, “Here, I’ll show you.” He waved his hand at Steve and started walking towards the bathroom. He lightly ran into the doorway out of the family room and Steve reflexively had his hands out, ready to catch him if he fell. They made it to the bathroom safe and sound.

“Open your mouth,” Bucky instructed, pointing to the mirror.

Steve did as he was told. When he opened his mouth, he could see the little yellowish tube going down his throat. “Woah,” he said, surprised, “that’s really cool!”

Bucky chuckled lightly, “See? I told you so.”

Bucky heard the sound of the garage opening and exclaimed, “They’re home!” before stumbling back out into the family room with Steve in tow.

As soon as Clint walked into the door, Bucky dramatically plopped himself into the couch.

“He had spasms,” Phil explained to Clint, laughing.

“Drunky’s back! Uncle Drunky!” Clint exclaimed.

Steve laughed at the nickname.

“Clint, be nice,” Phil chided while chuckling.

Steve and Clint joined Bucky in another episode of Family Feud while Phil made a quick dinner. About half an hour later, he called the boys into the kitchen to eat dinner. They all prayed before Phil and Clint started to eat.

“You up for school tomorrow? I know you usually take off Wednesdays, so since you went today I didn’t know if you needed a break.” Phil asked Bucky.

Bucky nodded. The muscle relaxers had worn off slightly, so he was a little more alert than before.

“Alright, cool. Steve? You want to go too?”

Steve nodded, “Yeah, I think so.”

Phil wiped his mouth with his napkin, “Cool. Let me know if you change your mind.”

“Not going to ask me?” Clint asked with mock horror.

“I was getting to you, drama queen. Do you want to go tomorrow?”

“Yeah. Unless this hand wants to keep being wonky,” Clint said, lifting his right hand limply.

“Yeah, that’s really odd. PT gave you some exercises for it, right?”

“Maybe,” Clint grumbled.

Phil looked at him knowingly, “You know you’re supposed to do them to see a difference, right?”  
            “Yeah,” he grumbled again.

“Good.”

“So, you guys have any homework?” Phil asked, picking up his now empty plate and taking it to the sink.

All three shook their heads.

“Good. I was thinking about playing a board game. You guys in?”

All three nodded. Clint followed Phil and took his plate up too.

“How about Jenga? Do you guys know how to play?”

Steve and Clint nodded, but Bucky looked confused.

“Don’t worry Bucky, we’ll teach you. It’s super easy,” Phil started, “I’ll go grab it from downstairs if you guys clean off the coffee table?”

The boys picked up the stuff from the coffee table and moved it away as Phil was coming back with Jenga.


	17. Chapter 17

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! Sorry it's been a bit, but I intend to add another chapter really soon after this, since this chapter is a bit shorter than usual. I hope you all have great days!

As they were sat on the ground around the coffee table, Phil started to set up the game and briefly explained the directions to Bucky.

“So basically you have a tower of blocks, and you want to take a block out without letting the whole tower fall over, got it?”

Bucky nodded curtly.

“So what does the loser have to do?” Clint asked.

“You want to make it that kind of game?” Phil replied.

“Yeah, it’s no fun unless there’s a motivation to win,” Clint answered.

“Alright…hmmm,” Phil thought, “What about….loser has to…I don’t know.”

“Loser has to eat a handful of shredded cheese,” Bucky offered.

“What?” Phil laughed under his breath. “I was thinking something along the lines of having to do the dishes tomorrow, but eating a handful of shredded cheese is pretty unique.”

“But you don’t eat cheese,” Clint questioned Bucky.

“I’m not going to lose,” Bucky smirked back at him.

“Ohhhhh someone’s confident. You okay with that, Steve? Loser has to eat a handful of shredded cheese?” Phil asked.

Steve laughed quietly and nodded.

Phil continued to build the tower before realizing that someone was mumbling to themselves. He looked up to find Clint and Steve struggling not to laugh while Bucky murmured the lyrics to ‘London Bridge is Falling Down’ and found himself chuckling softly. Although he hated the reason why Bucky sometimes had to take the muscle relaxers, he had to admit that it was fun to see Bucky’s personality come out more. He apparently had a lot more to say than people thought.

Once the game was set up, they each took turns pulling the pieces out. Bucky needed a little help on his first turn, but he soon got the hang of it.

“Alright Bucky,” Phil started, eyeing the now wobbly tower, “it’s all on you.”

Bucky slowly reached out to take a piece and was so gentle that the tower didn’t fall. His eyes lit up in surprise. “Ha! It’s going to be Clint!”

“Uh excuse me,” Clint shot back, “I’m a master at staying still. I won’t knock it down.” Sure enough, as Clint went to take his next piece, the tower crumbled.

“No!” he exclaimed.

Phil stood up and flourished his arm towards the kitchen, “Your handful of cheese awaits.”

Clint groaned and got up to follow him, the two other boys doing the same right after.

“You want Mild Cheddar or the Colby and Monterey Jack mix?” Phil asked, opening a drawer in the fridge.

“Ugh….I don’t know…the mix I guess,” he replied, rubbing his head with the back of his hand.

Phil dumped a small pile of cheese into Clint’s hand. Clint sighed before closing his eyes and popping the whole pile into his mouth. He made a face while chewing it before swallowing.

Bucky blinked a few times before waving his hand and turning around, “That was anticlimactic. I’m going to bed.”

“Wow. This Uncle Drunky is much sassier than usual,” Clint grumbled.

“As the adult here, I probably shouldn’t say this, but you probably deserve his sass,” Phil answered, putting the bag of cheese back into the fridge. “Also, does he realize it’s only 7pm?”

“Probably not. I’m betting he’ll be back in 3…2...1...ah no. I was really hoping he’d walk in then,” Clint joked. “Oh wait! It’s 7pm? That means Wheel of Fortune’s on!” Clint exclaimed before hurrying back into the family room. Steve followed behind.

Bucky was sprawled out on the couch.

“Thought you were going to bed?” Clint asked jokingly while grabbing the remote.

“It’s 7pm. That’s too early. I’m not 100 years old,” Bucky replied.

“Touché. Steve, you’ve been awfully quiet tonight, you ever watch Wheel of Fortune?” Clint asked as he changed the channel.

“Yeah, my mom and I used to watch it sometimes after dinner,” Steve answered, sliding his backpack off and putting it in the space beside him in the chair.

The boys watched the show and ended up watching Jeopardy as well, since it came on right after. After Jeopardy, Bucky stood up and walked out of the room. He mumbled a quick, “Night.”

“Aw, looks like Uncle Drunky is probably gone. Now we’re back to normal Buck,” Clint said as he stood up and stretched, “I’m gonna go downstairs and read.”

Steve sat on the chair for a bit, watching whatever had come on after Jeopardy, he wasn’t really sure what it was.

A little while later, Phil came out of the hallway and sat in the chair, “Bucky’s out, might follow him soon. I could use an early night.”

“I think I might go shower and then sleep, if that’s okay,” Steve said quietly.

“Of course it is! If you want to hand me your backpack, I can help disconnect you. I’ll get everything ready for you too while you shower.”

Steve nodded, stood up, and handed the backpack to Phil. At that moment it hit him how truly exhausted he was. The more he thought about it, it had been a long day. A very long day. He was so ready to just get into bed and sleep.

Phil disconnected him from the tubing and he went off to grab his clothes, take the batteries out of his hearing aides to put them on his side table, and shower. He showered as quickly as his tired body could before drying off and getting his pajamas on. He went in to his bedroom to find Phil hanging up the bag on the pole. Steve sat down on the bed and Phil reconnected the tubing.

“Alright, wake me up if you need anything tonight. Goodnight!” Phil said as he turned the lights out and closed the door. Steve was asleep in almost an instant. 


End file.
